By Gus Weinstein
Staff Writer
The Jamesville-DeWitt/ Christian Brothers Academy Varsity Boys Swim team have started off their highly-anticipated season with a untarnished 4-0 record. The boys started off their season with four quality wins over West Genesee, Auburn, Baldwinsville and Weedsport. “Towards the beginning of our season we thought we had a good chance to win sectionals. But after starting our season 4-0, I think we can definitely win sectionals if we stay healthy,” said senior captain Jack Martin.
“We have the potential to win sectionals,” said senior captain Ben Katarsky. Even though the boys started their season well, Katarsky believes they still have room for improvment. “We all have goal times and we want to make sure that everyone reaches one of their goal times,” said Katsarsky. “Even though we have had some quality wins, we still need to improve if we want to beat a strong Liverpool team.” Liverpool is the team’s toughest opponent according to Katsarsky and Street. This is because, “They have always had a great team and this year their team is stacked, this year their team is better than ever.” The boys swim against the Warriors on Feb. 4 at 5 p.m. “I believe we have a good chance to beat (Liverpool),” said Head Coach Bob Bewley; “They have a good team but so do we.”
Beating Liverpool isn’t the team’s only goal. “I think if we really achieve our goals, there are only 10 kids on our team that wouldn’t make sectionals. Everyone on our team has a lot of potential and our team has a lot of depth and I think thats whats going to make us a really great team,” said Martin. In fact, senior Josh Lacy broke a pool record in the 500m freestyle with a time of 4:49.47 against a tough Auburn team. “I’m really proud of him. He’s been working really hard to drop his time below 4:50,” said Assistant Coach Matt Lowery.
To start off their season, the J-D boys, led by Martin, beat a “solid” West Genesee team 97-78. In their second match, the boys easily handled a scrappy Auburn team 101-77. “Last year we lost by two points on a technical error, so we really wanted to show Auburn that we could beat them,” said Katarsky. Next they swam against two tough opponents, Baldwinsville and Weedsport, and beat both by the same score, 96-82.
“This year’s motivation for me is to get in shape as fast as possible so I can post some personal records,” said Katsarsky. Katarsky wants to carry personal record into his college career at Penn State Behrend. All the seniors are really motivated to win the sectional title for their coach. “Coach Bewley is always there for us and always pushes us to do better. I think I can speak for our team when I say, I hope we win sectionals for him,” said senior captain Nick Street. “But team wise I think our motivation is ourselves. We all want to get better and achieve our true potential so I think we all are going to swim our hearts out,” said Martin.